What Can You Do?

There really are a lot of things that people can do that can help animals:

1) Volunteer at an Animal Shelter (i.e. The Humane Society, Last Hope, etc.)

2) If you see an animal being abused, don't just watch. Do something. (Like..call 911, your local animal shelter, or animal control.)

3) Don't buy products that have cruel or unusual tests on animals!

4) Don't hoard. This means to not have an excess number of pets. "Animal hoarding involves keeping higher than usual numbers of animals as pets without having the ability to properly house or care for them"

5) Only get a pet if you are sure you can handle it. Pets are a big responsibility, and require care and love. If you buy a pet and decide that you can't take care of it, take it to a NO KILL shelter.

6) Spend time with your pet. Make sure that you always play with your pet so that they feel loved and taken care of.

7) Don't get a dog from puppy mills. They are really bad places for dogs. Get a dog from a breeder or a shelter.

8) Having trouble deciding between no kill and normal shelters? Take a look at all of the pets that they have there. People tend to avoid no kill shelters because, well, they don't kill the animals. But then they have to spend their whole lives in a cage.

This is an example of a puppy mill.

http://aatheory.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/puppy_20100219_aatheory.png

9) Even though everyone loves cute, cuddly kitties, and adorable fuzzy puppies, take a look at older pets too. Most people go for the babies, so a lot of times the adults are kept in shelters for a long time. It isn't exactly abuse, but it isn't good, either.